VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Beijing or Virginia Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Beijing’s own page.

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Beijing 6, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Virginia Beach 42: Beijing leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Virginia Beach 30: Beijing leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Virginia Beach 37: Beijing leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Virginia Beach 56: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Virginia Beach 64: Beijing leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Virginia Beach 27: Beijing leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Virginia Beach 32: Beijing leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Virginia Beach 40: Beijing leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Virginia Beach 38: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Virginia Beach 32: Beijing leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Virginia Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingVirginia Beach
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m7 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingVirginia Beach
City population21,893,095459,470
People per km²1,334-
Museums within 10 km832
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Virginia Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.